4/30/2006 02:31:00 a.m. -
Reported by
Shaun Lyon

April 30, 2006 • Posted By Shaun Lyon

Early news of overnight viewing figures for Saturday's new Doctor Who episode School Reunion on BBC1 are in: an average of 7.6 million viewers watched the episode, with an average 39.8% audience share (peaking very briefly as high as 8.88 million viewers in the final five minutes according to the interval breakdowns.) While this is down over a million viewers from the overnights for the previous episode ("Tooth and Claw"), all of UK television experienced a downturn in ratings due to this weekend's bank holiday; Doctor Who was, in fact, in first place in Saturday's program schedule on all networks by both audience numbers and by share.

Meanwhile, the third episode of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3 was viewed by an average of 565,800 viewers, with a 3.8% audience share, ranking #2 on the total Saturday night viewership on the non-terrestrial channels (behind a sporting event.) Many viewers noted that the BBC3 broadcast started approximately one minute prior to the end of the episode on BBC1, though this likely did not affect the ratings. More details soon. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon')